State Regatta

Saturday Nov. 12 LSU, Northwestern State University and Tulane University competed in the biannual State Rowing Championships of Louisiana in New Orleans.

The race was the last of each team’s season and the first 2,000-meter race of the season. This race served as a preview for the spring sprint race season.

The venue was the New Orleans Outfall Canal. The navigable portion of the canal is just over 2,000 meters.

The canal is narrow, so races were separated into flights. All of the boats in the first flight would row to the starting line and wait for each of the races in flight one to finish. After every race finished, flight two launched and rowed to the start. There were three flights total.

Tulane won all events except the Men’s Varsity 4+, which was won by LSU, and the Novice 4+, which was won by Northwestern State.

The conditions in the canal proved to be problematic for participants. The first 500 meters of the racecourse were covered in a thick layer of duckweed and debris.

Rowing through the duckweed was difficult. It weighed down the oars and slowed the boats as they cut through the scum. By the end of the races in the second flight, boats and rowers were coated in a layer of green.

Several boats hit logs hidden under the duckweed. Those boats suffered broken skegs early in the race and struggled to navigate through the three bridges on the racecourse.

By the final flight, the wind had blown the weeds so far up the racecourse that races were shortened to 1,500 meters.

At the end of the day, equipment malfunctions cost each team at least one race.

When the conditions were taken into consideration, our team was proud of the results and hopeful for a strong 2K season in the spring.

A late lunch on the levee and an afternoon spent with teammates in sun made for the perfect end of the day and of the fall season.